Spider-Man September 11th
by Arachnobat
Summary: Spider-Man's monologue on 9/11


**Spider-Man September 11th**

_The following is an adaptation of December 2001's Amazing Spider-Man #36 AKA ASM #477 I have no political or nationalistic inclinations whatsoever but the events of September 11th 2001 I may have been just a kid when it happened but the attack on New York the capitol of the world is something that is not to be forgotten._

Darkness

"We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to give you the following Special Bulletin."

"Longitude: 74 degrees, 0 minutes, 23 seconds west. Latitude: 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds north. Follow the sound of the sirens."

Spider-Man stands on the edge of a rooftop two blocks away from the sight of the collapsing buildings as the city floods with smoke.

"God"

"Some things are beyond words, beyond comprehension, beyond forgiveness."

Spider-Man descends on a web to ground level. Many people were running spotting the hero a frightened couple spoke up.

"Where were you?!" the man said

"How could you let this happen?" the woman said

"I-" Spider-Man said turning his head as they ran past him

He faced the destruction and walked into the cloud of smoke and ash.

"How do you say we didn't know? We couldn't know. We couldn't imagine. Spider-Man stares at what's left of the building as firefighters and superheroes alike are at work.

"Only madmen could contain the thought to execute the act, fly the planes. The sane world will always be vulnerable to madmen because we cannot go where they go to conceive such things."

Spider-Man watches as a fireman gives orders to Captain America, Thor medics and some other firefighters as they move the rubble.

"We could not see it coming. We could not be here before it happened. We could not stop it. "

Spider-Man watches as the Thing holds up a large piece of rubble as Daredevil, police and medics move out of the way.

"Wolverine slashes through a piece of the structure police and firemen are working on while Spider-Man holds another portion so Cyclops can cut it with his optic beam.

"You cannot see us for the dust but we are here. You cannot hear us for the cries but we are here."

Doctor Doom, Magneto, Juggernaut, Kingpin and Doctor Octopus gaze at the nearby destruction at night.

"Even those we thought our enemies are here because some things surpass rivalries and borders. Because the story of humanity is written not in towers but in tears, in the common coin of blood and bone, in the voice that speaks within even the worst of us and says this is not right."

Doctor Doom has tears in his eyes.

"Because even the worst of us, however scarred, are still human, still feel, still mourn the random deaths of innocents."

A damaged fire truck drives across the street the front covered with roses.

"We are here."

More police and firemen move in.

"But with our costumes and powers we are writ small by the true heroes those who fight fire without fear or armor."

Personnel sitting against a wall bearing graffiti "Remember the brothers!"

"Those who step into the darkness without the assurance of ever walking out again because they know that there are others waiting in the dark"

Civilians rushing down a stairwell as firefighters rush in the opposite direction.

"awaiting salvation, awaiting word,"

A memorial service

"awaiting salvation."

Civilians helping a woman in a wheelchair go down the stairs.

"Ordinary men, ordinary women"

The teary eyed woman reunited with her loved ones.

"made extraordinary by there acts of compassion"

A woman pulls a man into a building and out of the way of cars on the smoke covered street.

"and courage"

The passengers aboard the flight where they rose against the terrorist huddled in the back of the plane.

"and terrible sacrifice."

"We've voted and we're going to try to take the plane it's the only way to stop them from hitting Washington. I love you."

"The passengers turn to face there captors."

"I love you." On the other end of the line

"Ordinary men, ordinary women refusing to surrender."

Injured civilians walking out of the disaster zone.

"Ordinary men, ordinary women refusing to accept the self serving proclamations of holy warriors of every stripe, who announce that somehow we had this coming."

American clergyman on camera.

"Probably what we deserve…all of them who have tried to secularize America… the pagans and the abortionist and the feminist and the gays and the lesbians and the aclu… I point the finger in their face and I say you helped this happen."

Bin Laden on camera.

"It is god's will that America should fall through their iniquity and their sin-"

"We reject them both in the knowledge that our tragedy is greater than the sum of our transgressions."

Teens watching the event on television.

"Bodies in freefall on the evening news."

Arabs in prayer as others cheer in victory.

"Madness in mosques, shouting down fourteen centuries of earnest prayers forgetting the lessons of crusades past…"

Spider-Man looking over his shoulder at a crying kid as he hands something to a fireman.

"… That the most harmed are the least deserving."

Spider-Man crouches next to the kid.

"Uh listen you shouldn't be here. This isn't a good place for you to-"

"My… my dad went in there to get something, he said he would be just a minute-"

"You shouldn't-"

"and if I wait and stay and I don't leave he'll be okay because I'll do what he told me, and-"

The kid spots some firefighters hauling away the father's dead body.

Spider-Man keeps a hold on the kid as he tries to run.

"Daddyyyyy!"

"There are no words. There are no words."

Spider-Man slumping next to a trashed car as some of the weary personal leave.

"The death of innocents and the death of innocence, rage compounded upon rage, rage enough to blot out the sun"

Spider-Man drinking from a water bottle near the medics.

"and the air filled with questions."

An injured woman on a cot reaches for him.

"Is it going to happen again? What do I tell my children? Why did this happen?"

"They ask the question why? Why?"

Spider-Man holds onto her hand.

"My god why? I have seen other worlds, other spaces I have walked with gods and wept with angels but to my shame I have no answer."

Spider-Man stares at Captain America standing in the wreckage.

"He's the only one who could know because he's been here before. I wish I had not lived to see this once I can't imagine what it is to see this twice. I just can't imagine."

Spider-Man and Cap face a crowd of civilians at the police line.

"What do we tell the children? Do we tell them evil is a foreign face? No the evil is the thought behind the face and it can look just like ours. Do we tell them that evil is tangible with defined borders and names and geometries and destinies? No they will have nightmares enough."

Kids watching and pointing from the police line.

"Perhaps we tell them that we are sorry. Sorry that we were not able to deliver unto them the world we wished them to have. That our eagerness to shout is not the equal of our willingness to listen. That the burdens of distant people are the responsibility of all men and woman of conscious, or their burdens will one day become our tragedy."

A mother with her two children.

"Or perhaps we simply tell them that we love them and that we will protect them that we would give our lives for theirs and do it gladly, so great is the burden of our love. In a universe of gameboys and vcrs, it is perhaps an insubstantial gift but it is the only one that will wash away the tears and knit the wounds and make the world a sane place to live in."

Vision, Scarlet Witch, Thor and Daredevil in the wreckage.

"We could not see this coming. No one could. We could not stop it, No one could. But we are here now for you."

Wolverine and Storm among the crowd of civilians.

"Today, Tomorrow and the day after."

A military meeting.

"We live in each blow you strike for infinite justice, but always in the hope of infinite wisdom."

Iraqi civilians.

"Because we live in the quiet turning of your considered conscious the voice that says all wars have innocents, the voice that says you are a kind and merciful people,"

An aircraft carrier.

"the voice that says do not do as they do, or the war is lost before it is even begun. Do not let that knowledge be washed away in blood."

The Thing and Mr. Fantastic helping the FBI and other personal at the site.

"When you move, we will move with you. We will go where you are, we are in you. Because the future belongs to ordinary men and ordinary women, and that future must be built free from acts as these, must be fought for and renewed like fresh water. Because a message must be sent to those who mistake compassion for weakness. A message sent through six thousand years of recorded blood and struggle. And the message is this:"

A view of the city.

"Whatever our history, whatever the root of our surnames, we remain a good and decent people and we do not bow down and we do not give up. The fire of the human spirit cannot be quenched by bomb blast and body counts cannot be forever intimidated into silence or drowned by tears. We have endured worse before; we will bear this burden and all that comes hereafter, because that's what ordinary men and women do no matter what. This has not weakened us it has only made us stronger."

Candles, flags and photos strewn over the ground"

"In recent years we as a people have been tribalized and factionalized by a thousand casual unkindness's but in this we are one. Flag's sprout in uncommon places, the ground made fertile by our tears and shared resolve. We have become one in our grief."

Relief workers of all races.

"We are now one in our determination, one as we recover, one as we rebuild."

A ship moving near the Statue of Liberty at night.

"You wanted to send us a message, and in so doing you have awakened us from our self involvement. Message received look for the reply in the thunder.

The ship with a crowd watching.

"In such days as these heroes are born, not heroes such as ourselves but the true heroes of the twenty first century. You the human being singular you who are nobler than you know and stronger than you think you the heroes of this moment chosen out of history.

People of every age race and background.

"We stand blinded by the light of your unbroken will, before that light no darkness can prevail. They knocked down two tall towers. In their memory draft a covenant with your conscious, that we will create a world in which such things need not occur, a world which will not require apologies to our children, but also a world whose roads are not paved with the husk of their inalienable rights. They knocked down two tall towers. Graft now their echo onto your spine. Become girders and glass, stone and steel, so that when the world sees you it sees them and stand tall. Stand tall."

Spider-Man a dozen heroes and about twenty police, soldiers, firefighters and medics.

"Stand tall."

**Iv adapted this faithfully and have not changed a letter what do you think? We cannot fix this system and there is a reason for that if anyone wants me to add a chapter with some scriptures let me know.**


End file.
